Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore

Post by chillacy » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

leafboi wrote: post #108

jackcosgrove wrote: post #103

> Yet history is littered with the failures of authoritarian modernist regimes. Indeed, the record of utopian schemes to improve the human condition is dismal in the 20th century. In the Soviet Union, Stalin’s plan to transform “small, backward and scattered peasant farms to amalgamated, large scale socialized farms” led to brutality and starvation for millions. In China, Mao’s Great Leap Forward propelled the nation…

Obviously the world is a super simple place with super simple answers to seemingly complex questions. When I asked my friend which is better authoritarianism or democracy he told me the answer is complicated. I told him to look at the evidence: Almost Every civilization in history: egyptians, romans, greeks, China was more or less some form of authoritarian government. They all failed. Basically every single civiliza…

Post by fareesh » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 6:16 PM UTC

ValentineC wrote: post #186

fareesh wrote: post #95

I've been all over the world, Singapore is my all-time favourite place to visit. It's too bad that it's so expensive though - especially housing, else I'd seriously consider living there. If you haven't been, you're missing out

> It's too bad that it's so expensive though - especially housing, else I'd seriously consider living there. Housing isn't too bad. My friends are paying around $600 USD for a room, and I think the market rate is around $800 USD for en-suite. It's even cheaper if you live in one of the newer estates, which don't yet have a major shopping mall within walking distance.

Post by dragonwriter » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

hellofunk wrote: post #225

dragonwriter wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One thing about a democracy, if poor choices are made and poor leaders are selected, it’s only temporary until the next wave of elections. With sufficiently bad choices in a democracy it ceases to be a democracy before the error is corrected. Also, even when that doesn't happen, its possible for a choice to be bad but repeated in a democracy.

> With sufficiently bad choices in a democracy it ceases to be a democracy before the error is corrected. I’d like to see a real world example of what you mean. Because while lots of countries have elections, when leaders are allowed to arbitrarily extend their reign past with their laws allow, then I would agree with you. But those are the countries that I consider falling under the category of “masquerading as a de…

Post by sam_lynx » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 12:50 AM UTC

kingkawn wrote: post #163

sam_lynx wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, as they said in the article: "Part of the mythos of Lee Kuan Yew is that he succeeded as an authoritarian where so many others have failed." Singapore is the exception; authoritarian governments are almost always bad for the people otherwise.

Many Singaporeans will tell you that their experience is quite repressive

Post by chillacy » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:48 AM UTC

hellofunk wrote: post #244

chillacy wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems a bit tautological to include the outcome in the definition. By that logic there are democracies today that will sometime in the future become “masquerading” that we can’t know yet.

You can't predict the future of any country of course, but you can certainly use its past to inform such a distinction. The moves by China and Russia, for example, to lengthen the reign of their leaders, while in the U.S., no matter what has happened to its leadership for the entirety of its history, no one has ever exceeded the time they were allowed before another election risked that tenure.